Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign council, Hon James Abiodun Faleke, asked Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello, to zone the party’s governorship ticket to Kogi West.
Ahead of the November 11, 2023 governorship election in Kogi, the governorship primary election in the state is scheduled to be held next Saturday, April 14, 2023.
Faleke who recently announced that he was withdrawing from the Kogi governorship race due to engagements at the national level reminded Bello of the circumstances that led to his emergence as governor.
He stated this in a statement titled, “Zoning next Governorship seat to Kogi West is the just and equitable thing to do”, which he issued in Abuja yesterday.
He said, “For equity, justice and fairness, it is only reasonable to lend my voice to the call by many that our great party, the All Progressives Congress should ensure the candidate for the Governorship election emerged democratically from Kogi West.
“I hereby appeal to my brother, His Excellency Yahaya Bello to recall the circumstances of his ascension to power and do all within his sense of reasoning as the leader of the party in the state in ensuring he doesn’t toy with this rare opportunity to be on the positive side of history.
“Just as the Progressive Governors of our party made history before the APC National Convention, those names will remain written in Gold in Nigeria. Posterity is the judge of all humans and may it judge us all positively”.
Recalling that for more than 16 years, those from the Eastern Senatorial District sat tight in Lugard House, producing three governors, the late Prince Abubakar Audu, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris and Captain Idris Wada, consecutively, Faleke said by the end of Governor Bello’s tenure Kogi Central would have been in the saddle for eight uninterrupted years.
He continued: “While not discounting the right of those concerned to contest for any office, I believe that the time has come to be just and fair to all.
“The clamour for power shift pre-2015 by Kogi West and Kogi Central was to correct the marginalization of the two Districts in the Governorship seat. My position is not premised on any sense of entitlement but on the ideals of equity and fairness which late Abubakar Audu preached before his untimely death.”
The victory of our great party, APC in 2015 especially in Kogi West was the avowed commitment of Late Prince Abubakar Audu to ensure power shifts to other parts of the State.
“APC cannot afford to be in opposition in Kogi State and all hands must be on deck to make sure to convincingly win in the November 22, 2023 Governorship.
“There are several states in Nigeria where Governorship positions are rotated amongst the three Senatorial Districts with attendant Peace, unity and progress, why must we be different?
“We must eschew things that could continually engender bitterness, distrust and disunity amongst us especially when deciding on who should be the Chief Executive of this great State. What should be of importance is our collective quest and preparedness to engender a united Kogi State for socio-political and economic prosperity.
“The realization of a long-term dream of a State that is secure and prosperous with its diverse demography peacefully coexisting should be paramount in our minds. This can only happen if we collectively decide on fairness, equity and justice. The weird equation of 16:8:0 must be corrected and the right time to start is now with the coming election.
As a party, we must go into the November 2023 elections with a common sense of purpose devoid of insensitive and unbridled ambition”.
